


The Boys From The Dwarf

by squishyhobi



Category: The Lodge (UK TV)
Genre: Band Fic, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-20
Updated: 2018-07-15
Packaged: 2019-03-21 19:58:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13748169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/squishyhobi/pseuds/squishyhobi
Summary: Danielle didn't exactly keep her love for the band 'Boys From The Dwarf' secret, but being caught singing along to them wasn't exactly what she wanted. Things change when she and her flatmate Skye go to their concert together, and Danielle's life will probably never be the same.





	1. Danielle's Fandom

Skye had _never_ seen Danielle like this before, dancing around the living area of the flat as she played the music loudly. She was practically blind to the other girl, the music playing was a song Skye hadn’t even heard of yet – but at least Danielle was enjoying it. 

“Danielle!” Skye eventually called out as she placed the shopping bags on top of the table, Danielle stopped dancing immediately and spun around to face Skye.

“Oh no,” she groaned over the music, “you saw that, didn’t you?”

Skye nodded with a taunting smile on her face, “very impressive,” she began unpacking the food shopping as she spoke to the girl, “I haven’t heard that song before.”

“It’s new,” Danielle paused the music and began playing with her hair, “by my favourite band, The Boys From The Dwarf!”

“Sounds exotic.”

“They’re actually based here in Ireland!”

Skye cocked her head, “where have I heard that name before?”

Danielle quickly took a seat and smiled to the blonde girl, “Red Dwarf! It’s a TV show from the nineties.”

Skye began to laugh with realisation, “yes! My dad watches it on Netflix, he practically quotes it all the time! There’s this song in the second series which he _always_ sings, it’s really catchy.”

“Tongue Tied!” Danielle clapped her hands together, “there’s a video of the boys re-enacting it, and it’s actually one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen! Noah does the solo part and then Ben and Sean doing the back up dance, it's precious.”

Skye placed some food items in the fridge and then turned back to her flatmate, “this band really brings out a different side to you.”

Danielle cupped her cheeks and hummed, “they’re just… They make me happy, you know? The lead singer, Ben, he’s the cutest person. He’s so ridiculously sweet. He likes my Tweets, and sometimes replies to me too and-”

“I’ve never seen you tweet him,” Skye cocked her head.

Danielle cleared her throat, “well, I mean… He interacts with my… My f-fandom Twitter.”

“Oh!” Skye grinned, “that’s adorable, I’m so glad you’ve got something that makes you happy!”

“I mean, it would,” Dani suddenly began to frown, “they’re doing a gig near here, but… But I can’t go alone, even when I don’t live with mum she still keeps me monitored, she’ll have a fit.

“I’ll come!” Skye yelped suddenly, “then you’re not alone!”

“Really?”

“Yes,” Skye sat down in the chair next to Danielle, “when is it?”

“Tomorrow,” Danielle pressed her lips together.

“Great! I’ll listen to them to get to know their songs.”

Danielle smiled as Skye jumped up from the chair and left the room, she quickly grabbed her laptop and went online to get tickets for the concert, luckily they weren’t sold out yet so she quickly purchased two tickets and made sure to tweet about it immediately.

_Just bought tickets for @BoysFromTheDwarf tomorrow!!! I can’t wait to see @BenFromTheDwarf @SeanFromTheDwarf and @NoahFromTheDwarf in person!_

She sent the tweet out and it didn’t take long until the lead singer, Ben, liked and retweeted her tweet. She smiled with content at her phone, perhaps at this concert she’d be able to meet him. She nervously fiddled with her hair and tried to hide the joy she was feeling.


	2. Managing The Mischief

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skye and Danielle get ready for the concert, meanwhile, the band's manager, Alex, struggles to keep the boys focused.

“Dad loaned me this!” Skye gestured to the Red Dwarf shirt she was wearing, “I thought it was rather fitting,” she looked at Danielle who had a similar styled shirt but with the band printed on it, “woah, that is so cool, is it official merch?”

“Yeah,” Danielle fiddled with the shirt, “I bought it online…”

“It actually, really suits you,” Skye complimented, giving the girl a smile, “so, are you good to go?”

“I’ve been good to go for ages!” Danielle shrieked, “I can’t believe I finally get to see them live, it’s been a dream of mine ever since I first found out about them!”

Skye placed a hand on her flatmate’s back, “I checked them out, and I mean it literally, the bassist is all types of attractive.”

“Sean? Yeah, everyone loves him, plus he’s Scottish so that makes them all fall harder for him, but Ben is an absolute sweetheart.”

“I thought I’d leave him for you,” Skye joked, “it would be cruel if I decided to chase after the same man.”

“Wow, I ended up with an amazing flatmate.”

Skye nodded proudly and then checked her phone for the time, “come on! We’ve got a train to catch!”

* * * * *

Alex glared at the boys as she walked into their dressing room, all sat around Noah’s phone watching videos, she eventually heard mewling and purring… They were watching cat videos.

“You guys are ridiculous,” she huffed, they all looked up at her.

“Come on Alex, we’ve played this gig plenty of times before,” Sean reasoned, tapping his hands against his thighs, “and we finished soundcheck, what else do you want us to do?”

“Sitting in the dressing room watching cat videos is definitely not what I had in mind,” Alex groaned, she crossed her arms, “look, there are already multiple people outside, mostly… Girls… Queuing up ready for your show, and you're sat in here watching cat videos!”

“You want us to go outside and meet the fans?” Sean raised an eyebrow, “upset with us watching pussy cats so she makes us go out and-”

Ben made a loud ‘ah’ sound and stared at Sean, “inappropriate,” he spoke in a warning tone, “and yes, I know what you were going to say.”

“N’aww Ben,” Sean punched his friend’s shoulder lightly, “you’re just too innocent to understand the humour.”

“No, he’s right,” Alex stared down Sean, “and I’m not innocent, in fact I’ve had more girlfriends than you, buddy, so don’t test me.”

“Yes, Alex,” Sean spoke, defeated, he dropped his head like a schoolkid told off by his teacher.

“That’s what I thought,” Alex grinned and turned to Noah, “so, spoken to Kaylee much today?” She raised an eyebrow.

Ben and Sean turned to Noah, both letting out a teasing ‘ooh’, but the boy shook his head and laughed, “I took a bottle of water to her, that was all, not much.”

“Weak,” Sean sighed and leaned back on the sofa, “the amount of drumming puns you’ve missed out on.”

“Such as?” Ben questioned.

“I’d bang you,” Sean spoke in a flat out tone, the next second, Alex’s radio was thrown at his head, she then retrieved it and placed it back on her belt.

“You are so lucky you’re a talented bassist,” Alex hissed.

“I’d make a joke about fingers, but I don’t think you’d like it,” Sean mumbled, still loud enough for Alex to hear, yet he was still surprised when she pulled off her shoe and threw it at him, “alright! I’m sorry!” He yelped, letting out a small giggle.

“I swear, sometimes I’m like a mother rather than a manager.”

“We love our mother,” Ben called out loudly, he stood up and rushed over to Alex, “seriously, we wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you. You basically are the mother of the band.”

“Ugh, don’t. I don’t want to be known for giving birth to you three.”

Ben gave Alex a pout, “you are the best manager we could have asked for,” he wrapped an arm around her.

“I guess I am,” Alex nodded proudly, “look, you boys need to get preparing! At least power nap or something.”

Ben saluted, “will do,” he moved over to the spare sofa and settled down, “don’t keep me up.”

“Night, night, Benny boy,” Sean sang to the boy, he winked quickly. Ben curled up on the sofa and shut his eyes. Alex grinned at the sight of it.

“Someone listens to mummy.”

“Mummy’s boy,” Noah shook his head, “but I am actually on board for a powernap!”

“Snap,” Sean stretched his arms out and lied down against the arm of the sofa, he closed his eyes and squirmed comfortably. 

Alex smiled happily, “I’ll be back soon,” she spoke in a quiet tone and then left the boys alone in the room, she turned off the light and closed the door. The three boys were like puppies, energetic and yet somewhat easy to control with the right discipline.


	3. Some Cheesy Chance Encounter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danielle was only doing the mundane task of going to the toilet when a chance encounter caused her entire day to change.

It was a small venue, everyone was close, and Danielle and Skye had ended up in front of the stage, Danielle hummed pleasantly.

“Crotch eye level,” she raised her eyebrows, “and right in front of Ben, my wildest fantasies come true.”

“Well, I highly doubt you’re going to be doing anything at crotch level with him.”

“No but, eyeing him up mid-show isn’t out of bounds,” Danielle joked, placing a hand on Skye’s shoulder, “and you can easily eye up Sean from here!”

“Okay, I won’t refuse that invitation.”

Danielle laughed and looked around, “I need to go to the bathroom.”

“I think the toilets are through that door,” Skye pointed to a door that was next to the stage, “just behind the stage… Not usually where toilets would be but… I think the ‘toilets’ sign kind of says it all.”

Danielle nodded and waved a hand to Skye, “save my space, I’ll be back as soon as possible!” She ran towards the door, barely looking as she opened it. She collided with someone on the other side and shrieked, quickly mumbling some apologies, “I’m sorry, I wasn’t even looking where I was going and-”

She saw the boy’s eyes, a beautiful blue, she knew who it was immediately. He looked back, slightly shocked, but then a moment later there was a hint of recognition in his expression, “hey…” He cocked his head, “You’re Danielle, right? DaniDwarfer on Twitter!”

Danielle was speechless, how did Ben Evans recognise her? Of all the fans they had, he recognised her! She knew she was blushing, but she lost all care and began nodding quickly, “yes, yes, o-oh my god, you’re Ben Evans, this is… Wow.”

Ben laughed and ran a hand through his hair, “Sorry… That took a me a moment, I kind of just woke up from a nap.”

“Don’t apologise! You recognised me! That’s everything a fan could ever wish for,” she began playing with her hair nervously, “I can’t believe this is… I do-“

“You’re basically our number one fan,” Ben whispered, shrugging as he spoke, “and you have hilarious tweets!” He flashed her a smile, “so wait, what are you doing back here?”

Danielle pointed to the toilets, “I wasn’t creeping on you guys if that’s what you think, I didn’t even realise your dressing room was back here.”

“It’s a small venue,” Ben seemed to understand, “well… Uh… I probably shouldn’t stop you from going to the toilet…”

Danielle laughed nervously, still playing with her hair, “it’s honestly fine! Amazing, actually,” she looked to the toilets again, “but yeah, maybe I should-”

“Actually, do you want to take a picture?” Ben asked quickly, and Danielle instantly nodded, pulling her phone from her pocket.

“I’d love one,” she quickly looked him up and down and then turned her phone camera on, she held it out ready to take a picture. Pausing when she felt Ben’s arm around her waist, it felt comfortable, and right… He wasn’t afraid to get close to her. She then took several photos in quick succession – some of them being her glancing to Ben.

Ben hesitated for a moment before pulling his hand away from her waist, Danielle was in disbelief, her current celebrity crush had his arm around her waist, it just felt… Right. But perhaps that was because she had such a love for him. He was cute and talented, two very important things in a boy. He had a gorgeous smile, a bonus, and hypnotising eyes, another bonus. He was practically perfection for her, but it wasn’t something to hope for. He was going to be famous and she was just a fan of his band. She waved to him and began making her way towards the bathroom. Ben smiled to her.

“It was lovely meeting you, at last,” he called out to her, “I’ll keep an eye out for you!”

“I’ll be at the front,” Danielle promised, “right in the centre!”

Ben had a pleased smile on his face, “then, I’ll definitely make sure to see you,” he winked to her and Danielle swore in that moment her heart stopped. He rushed back into the dressing room and Danielle ran into the bathroom. She let out a small squeal when she knew she was alone. He was even sweeter in real life than he was online. She quickly looked back at the photos, she had taken many in such a short span of time, and each other them was perfect to her. She paused on one, she was looking to the camera in it and Ben’s gaze was on her. Her breath hitched and she instantly made that one photo her phone lockscreen… He looked like he was in love with her, and she wished that could have been the case. She selected a few of the photos, including the lockscreen photo, and uploaded them as a stack on her Instagram, making sure to tag Ben of course. Then she made her way into one of the stalls and went to the toilet as she had promised Skye she would. 

Once finished, she quickly washed her hands and ran out of the bathroom, she ran out of the bathroom, slowing down slightly in the corridor just in case Ben emerged again. He didn’t, but she wasn’t disappointed, she just had to get out and tell Skye what happened. The girl may have been new to the band fandom, but she’d be sure to understand and share the excitement. She worked her way around the crowd and got back to her place next to Skye.

“Oh my God, Danielle, you missed it! Some girl tried to call me a fake fan because I admitted I only started listening to them recently, but then she incorrectly quoted one of their songs and I corrected her – you should have seen her face! It was-” Skye paused when she noticed Danielle’s expression, “are you alright? You look as though you just… Like you took some illegal substance, Danielle, don’t tell me you-”

“No!” Danielle shrieked, playfully slapping Skye’s shoulder, “I just had the most amazing moment of my life!”

Skye raised an eyebrow, “and that would be?”

“Check my Instagram,” she quickly ordered the girl, not being able to hide her excitement. It was far too difficult for her to keep to herself. Skye looked through her phone, quickly navigating to Danielle’s Instagram, her expression changed completely. Pure shock.

“You met Ben!?”

“Their dressing room is on the way to the toilet and he was coming out of the door when I was walking into that hallway and we kind of bumped into each other… He’s such a beautiful person, and he’s so nice. He recognised me before I even got a chance to fangirl about him!”

“He recognised you?”

“From my Twitter,” Danielle began to play with her hair, “I guess they do pay attention to their fans.”

“No wonder he looks like he’s in love with you,” Skye turned the phone to Danielle, the picture of Ben looking at Danielle was currently showing.

“Oh my God,” Danielle laughed, “he’s not in love with me.”

“This looks like a prom photo where the couple end up getting married and staying together,” she grinned, she then gasped, “Ben liked it already!”

“He did?” Danielle looked at Skye’s phone and then to her own, “oh my God, Skye, he just followed me!” Danielle squealed and held her phone to her chest, “he’s so amazing,” she let out a quick laugh, “amazing.”

Skye placed a hand on Danielle’s back, “I need you two to get together.”

“It’s not going to happen,” Danielle scoffed, “he’s famous, I’m…”

“Fan famous!”

“I’m not fan famous.”

“I’m pretty sure most fans know who DaniDwarfer is.”

“DaniDwarfer?” The pair turned to another voice, a girl with light brown her and doughy eyes, “why are you talking about her?”

“I told you,” Skye whispered to Danielle, she turned to the other girl, “you know Danielle then!”

“I know she’s always noticed by the band,” the girl huffed, “she gets all of Ben’s attention, and it’s like… Maybe, sometimes, other people want his attention, you know? He’s not just here for her entertainment!”

“Well,” Danielle cleared her throat, “I’m sorry that I disappoint you so much,” she crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow, “it’s not like I’m doing it on purpose.”

“O-oh… You’re…?” 

Danielle nodded and the girl quickly shied away, “sorry, I’m so sorry,” she turned away.

Skye rolled her eyes and grabbed the girl’s wrist, “don’t worry,” she looked to Danielle and smile, “as the boys say, forgiveness is the key to friendship. This fandom is all about friendship. I’m Skye.”

“Ana,” The girl shook Skye’s hand, “I’m still… Really sorry, Danielle. It’s just… I know there are people who don’t like… I just thought that-”

“People don’t like me, I get it,” Danielle nodded, “I understand that maybe sometimes Ben does seem to notice me a lot… But please don’t think I’m trying to do it on purpose, I just really like him so I tweet him and stuff, and then he replies,” she began to nervously play with her hair, “I’m overjoyed when he replies, but knowing I might be upsetting people… I don’t know. I don’t want to do that.”

“Oh, no, I’m so sorry! Look can we start over?”

* * * * *

The girls had decided to stay civil, and they began to chatter eagerly about the band. The support act, Kaylee Marsden, had finished her setlist and ran back through the backstage door, she must have been overwhelmed with the positive response. Danielle had looked into Kaylee prior to the show and she knew that the girl had some anxiety issues, so being able to perform in such an intimate space must have been more than enough for Kaylee. It didn’t take long for the stage to be set up for the boys, Danielle had nudged Skye and pointed to a redhead girl who was stood at the side of the stage, “that’s Alex, their manager.”

Skye cocked her head curiously, “I feel like I’ve seen her before, did we go to school with her or something?”

Danielle shook her head, “I’m pretty sure she lives in the city.”

Skye nodded slowly and watched as the stagehands rushed around, finishing up the boy’s set, “it’s almost time, you’re going to see the boy you love in person! Again! How are you feeling?”

“So good,” Danielle laughed, she gripped onto Skye’s hand, “are you ready to see some real life Gods?”

“Super ready!”

“I can’t wait,” Ana squealed, grinning to the girls, “this is going to be the best thing, I was hoping they’d come to Norway, but I don’t know if that will be happening soon. It’s lucky I was in Ireland when I was!”

Danielle stared at the side of the stage, playing with her hair. Meeting Ben had been a phenomenal moment for her, and now she needed to see him again. It wasn’t too long until Noah ran onto the stage and took place behind his drumkit, the fans cheered for him, then Sean came on with his bass and the crowd cheered louder – Danielle knew that girls loved him, but she thought she’d save most of her cheers for Ben, and she did. Ben finally came onto the stage and Danielle couldn’t hide her grin. She cheered for the boy, and he made eye contact with her as he got into place – it was cliché, but Danielle really did feel like everything played in slow motion. He flashed her a smile and then stopped in front of his microphone, directly in front of Danielle. Danielle dramatically placed a hand over her heart and placed her other hand on Skye’s shoulder, “I might be dramatic, but I think my heart just leapt out of my chest.”

Skye looked around the area and shook her head, “nope, I think it’s still in there.”

Danielle laughed and playfully pushed Skye, there was a quick bit of conversation from Ben and Sean, and they then began playing their first song. Danielle kept her eyes on Ben, and sometimes he’d look down to her, at least she was certain that’s what he was doing. She had been playing with her hair as she watched him, looking him up and down, as the music to the first song started, Danielle’s mind went back to when she first found out about the band. 

Feeling down about being rejected once again by her father, she locked herself into her room and got into bed, throwing the covers over her head. She went onto her phone, deciding perhaps watching Youtube videos would take her mind off things. After watching multiple random videos of older British comedy shows, she ended up watching clips from ‘Red Dwarf’, a show revolving around the last human alive after being in suspended animation for 3 million years. He was accompanied by a hologram of his former bunkmate to keep him sane, and soon also finds company in ‘Cat’ – a descendant of his pet, the cats evolved into humanoids over the 3 million years. Danielle was watching a clip from the second season, the character ‘Cat’ performing a song within his dream ‘Tongue Tied’, she had remembered watching reruns of the show once before and this song had been stuck in her head for a week or two afterwards – now being older she understand more of the song and it was even funnier to her. 

On the suggested videos, she saw that there was one video of three boys re-enacting the song. In the thumbnail, it looked as though they were performing on a stage. She clicked on the video and was greeted to a video looking different from the thumbnail, three boys sat on a sofa.

“Hi guys! It’s us, the Boys From The Dwarf,” Danielle raised an eyebrow as she watched the video, Boys From The Dwarf? She continued to watch, perhaps she’d get an answer, “to celebrate a year since our first single, we decided to show you some never before seen footage of us when we were in school!”

“Specifically,” one boy leaned forward, dark brown her falling over his forehead and a sweet smile showing, Danielle wondered if it was bad that she instantly thought of how attractive he was, “our performance in front of the school, on Valentine’s day…”

“We begged our drama teacher,” the third boy spoke in a strong Scottish accent, “to let us perform a hilarious song from one of our favourite shows Red Dwarf! She was more than happy to let us go on stage!”

“And,” the second boy spoke again, “it was actually this performance that made us decide on our band name. The Boys From The Dwarf, which is – of course – a direct reference to the show.”

“So here is footage of our rendition of Tongue Tied, from season 2 of the show. We hope you enjoy this pure uncut comedy,” the first boy clapped his hands together.

The video then played and Danielle found herself laughing multiple times throughout the hilarious act, they were spot on with their dancing, and they executed the comedy at perfect times – what made it funnier was probably the fact that they were actually singing the song, they weren’t just miming to it. There were moments of planned comedy between the attractive boy and the Scottish boy whilst they were singing backup – where they’d go to fight each other but would then focus on the next bit of choreography instead, plastering on fake smiles. The next video to play was of a song by the boys, and instantly she liked what she heard. She listened to song after song after song, finding new comfort in the boys. She knew that maybe they’d already have many fans, they were attractive boys of course they’d have fans. But she’d still be one, she could probably make friends through liking this band… And of course she’d find out more about them along the way, and perhaps one day she’d be able to see them live. 

Back into the current moment, the boys were playing the song, the first official song she had heard from them. Ben began to sing and Danielle recalled the feeling when she heard his voice for the first time, butterflies. This time around, the butterflies had grown intensely. It was ridiculous to say, but Danielle had gone from a simple basic fangirl to being… Hopelessly in love with a boy she could never have… She continued to enjoy the show though, Ben was still important to her and she did have feelings for him, unrequited love would have to do. 

The concert felt like it moved by much faster than it did, she kept her eyes on Ben, and he would genuinely look down and flash her smiles throughout the show. There was part in one song where Ben went along the front row, high-fiving the girls. When he got to Danielle, he stopped to hold on to her hand for a little bit longer – and of course it was during the lyrics about staying with a girl. Danielle’s heart stopped again, was he teasing her on purpose?

Danielle felt like her entire world was so much brighter with Ben in it, now she knew she couldn’t let her world revolve around him, he wasn’t going to be a God to her, instead he’d just be someone she could turn to for happy thoughts. There would still be that wish inside of her, a dream of him being something more in her life.


End file.
